Planning our Creativity

I am not a planner. I have two jobs that take up 60+ hours of my week where planning is key. I am all planned out after that.
My best bet is to watch for patterns of success, and work those patterns. Only then does planning come naturally to me. One of the successful patterns is having a range of different scales of projects.
In sewing this means a complex garment or a big quilt maybe, with a few simple jobs like repairs or small craft projects mixed around them. (my sewing lately has been short on big projects!)
Same with show projects - I've just come off one huge show project and I'm looking forward to the next couple being much simpler affairs for me - a photo shoot to accompany n interview I did recently and then just MCing on the night and belting out a couple of songs from my usual repertoire. The trick is to not convince myself that I need to make a new costume or write a new song for them - that's where all the panic and time wasting happens!

I am also the unapologetic owner of a personal whiteboard. It's BIG and it was free - it's actually the back of an annual planning whiteboard that was being thrown out. I learned from my corporate career that being able to write all over a whiteboard really did help us to organise thoughts and ideas and make them achievable. Not just wispy words in our heads.
So when I feel overwhelmed by projects and things to do, I write them on the board. This board covers the whole year to mid November, but not too deep unless it needs to be. It's the things I need to plan ahead for. The details I write down in lists on pads.
OK, OK This IS planning. I am deluded! But it is simple, visual and effective. And no time sheets and the budgets are far more fun!